One thing I literally bug my clients
about ( just ask them and they will regale you with the tales) is to give
me the sizes and relevant details, for all the goods they want me to display
for them when I build their web site. Sizes and details for everything,
OK, why do I require such detail ?

The answer is a simple one, but one
that is often overlooked.
The goods are online, and the
only selling point is an image, which, unless its set up with a thing beside
it, that everyone knows how big it is, there is no way to know size just
by looking at an image, on a great many things. There is no reference point.

How we are used to buying goods

We are used to buying goods, by walking
into a store, seeing a thing, picking it up and examining it, and then
we buy it. We never have to ask, how big it is ? We can see that with our
own eyes, so its never a question, but taking a cue from our catalog sales
cousins, its all about the details. The customer needs to see, in black
and white, what size is this thing, How much does it weigh ?Give
them, chapter and verse, in exacts, as much as is possible, so that they
can make an informed choice. The sheer number of goods online I have seen
that have no referent for there size or weight, is astounding.

Failure to give your customer this information,
will cost you sales. The main reason, people will not buy blind, meaning
they have to guess. If they have to stop and figure it out, you have lost
the sale. They will trot on over to the next site that doesn't make them
have to think about it. But there are mistakes that are commonly made,
even when sizes and the like, are given.

Mistake one: General sizes

A common sizing used online, are things
like "small, med and large", for example, in clothing, without the sizing
range that entails. In a real life store, you can do this, as they can
hold the thing up and see for themselves what the sizes relate to, in terms
of their own person, they can even try it on. This is not the case online.

Give the customer details of say: a
small will fit a size 2-5, Med fits 6-9, large fits 9-14, in american sizing.
This gives them a base line idea of which size they need to order. Failure
to give them this, is a recipe for returned goods, as they are forced to
order by guess, and often find it doesn't fit when they get it, and back
it comes, with the whole hassle of returns and refunds. Not to mention
an annoyed customer.

Mistake two: Jargon and failure to explain
the terms.

This one is real hard to avoid, unless
you take a moment to think about it. It's the tendency to use terms
that make perfect sense to you the seller, but may be meaningless to the
buyer. As the terms are so common, in your industry, that no one even thinks
about the fact the buyer, the one your trying to sell to, likely
has never heard the term.

If you use say, a weight measure that
is commonplace for your industry, but may not common knowledge to your
customer.

Example: Dram, now unless you happen
to know this is a unit of liquid measure that = 1/8 of an oz, its useless
information. Now in a real life store, they have the bottle in their hand,
they can see about how much is in there, an image of the same bottle
however, tells them nothing and telling them in some measure like drams,
is not going to help the average buyer, at least not in many countries.
You will just annoy them, as you have told them its weight, but they still
don't know the answer to the all important question of " so ... how much
is in the bottle?" as you have used a referent, that may be meaningless.

The same goes for length, height, etc.
Use common terms, or make references to common measures your customer is
likely to have seen or understand.

Mistake three: Not taking into account
a global customer base.

If what you sell, has potential buyers
world wide, there needs to be conversion tables from one sizing range to
another, as its not even remotely close to the same from country to country,
this is for just about anything, from measurements, weights, to a persons
dress or shoe size. Failure to take this into account, again is recipe
for returns.

The same goes for pricing, if you don't
have a means for them to convert your prices, into their currency, they
don't even know what the price is. Provide some means for this, there are
literally millions of sites that have such tools, a simple link to a currency
convertor, and you have given them the means. The same is true for
languages, no means to covert it to theirs ? Means they cant even read
the site, no matter what details you have on there.

Mistake four: Failure to be able to
answer their questions.

This one is real problem, as far too
many online merchants, don't "know" the details in question, as they drop
ship and the drop shipper didn't give them that information, or they didn't
ask for it:

Example: I recently was looking at a
wheelchair cushion. Now the cushion in question was supposed to have a
gel center, which for wheelchair bound persons is recommended, however
the one bit of information that was not given, is how the gel pack in the
middle of the cushion was compartmentalized ? Its pretty important information,
but the site didn't say.

I wrote and asked the retailer this
question, what I got back as an answer, was the same information that was
on the site. Meaning they didn't have any idea of what was inside the cushion
they were selling ! This is unacceptable. Ask the wholesaler such details,
and if you cant get that information from them, you likely need another
wholesaler. It comes down to, "know" the goods you are selling and have
those details at your finger tips, and preferably put them online, right
along with the goods.

Mistake five: Considering sales talk
as "details"

I cant count the number of sites I have
seen, that regale me with paragraph after paragraph of sales pitch, without
really telling me a thing about the item. Sales talk is fine and dandy,
you need a certain amount of it, but be certain that among all the sales
pitch, are the details the customer needs. Line after line of sales talk
is worthless, unless it also gives up information. If you do this too much,
your customer will say ... "yeah yeah yeah, enough with the hype already,
tell me about the thing ! "

But all too often, this kind of talk
takes the place of relevant details. It seems to the merchant, they have
said plenty, but if it's the wrong information, it's useless. A good hint,
if you are forever getting letters from your customers, asking for details,
it means they are lacking on the site itself, and it needs to be amended.

Mistake six: Too many details.

The opposite end of the spectrum, is
having too much detail. If you drown your customer in verbiage, where they
have to read a small book in order to learn about the merchandise, news,
they are outa here. There is a fine line between just enough information,
so they can make an informed choice, and too much. There are exceptions
to this, but they are few.

Give the customer enough information,
but don't make them have to read a user manual in order to buy something.
We have all seen the infomericals on TV, that spend a half an hour to say,
what could have been said in 5 mins. Be concise and be considerate of your
customers time, and your sales figures will thank you.